Author Caitlin Rother Explains How to Make Book Soup

I am often asked what is involved in putting together a true crime book and how long it takes. Well, if I were writing a cook book on how to cook up a book (now that’s a mouthful), I might give this answer: pour several truckloads of research into a large caldron, add a barrelful of interviews, a gallon of storytelling pizzazz, a dash of hope, and a pinch of justice. Consume many glasses of full-bodied patience, determination, and flexibility while you are cooking. Slow simmer for a year or two and serve.

Author Caitlin Rother

But seriously, there is no simple answer to this, because every case is different, and it depends on the specific details of the crime, which state it happened in (also if it’s a small town where they are wary of or uncooperative with outsiders vs. big city where they aren’t), whether it’s a death penalty case and how much media attention it’s gotten. It also depends on my deadline, the publisher (and editor), any legal issues involved, if it takes multiple trials for the defendant(s) to be convicted, and how much cooperation I get—and when—from the key players.

Some of this may not be evident at the start, so I have to use my experience to base the schedule for publication on certain assumptions, because things often do not go as I hope or as I plan. Like they say, sometimes life gets in the way of good planning.

For starters, court dates are never real. Hearings and trials are always delayed and rescheduled as a matter of course, and even more so with death penalty cases. So for me the first key is to wait until as late in the case as possible before I commit to a deadline because to be on safe legal ground, it’s always better (and sometimes necessary) to wait for a conviction before I write the book. It also makes for a better, more authoritative and more comprehensive story.

Until a case goes to trial, many compelling details and evidence are kept out of the public domain until they are presented in court. Also, many people don’t want to talk until they don’t have to worry about screwing up the case somehow. Some are even more conservative and refuse to talk while an appeal is pending. This was the case with my latest book, THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER, which certainly complicated matters. But I did not get where I am by being blocked by such details.

As for the timing of this book, I didn’t even learn about the Steve DeMocker case until near the end of the second of two trials, when he was convicted for the murder of his very recently divorced ex-wife. The first one ended in mistrial, the circumstances of which were initially cloaked in the darkness of sealed court briefs and transcripts, some of which, I later learned, had been unsealed. Still, people were scared to discuss them because they didn’t know which were still sealed.

I was also in completely new territory when no one from the prosecution (other than one brief conversation), the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (and mind you, the sheriff is an elected position) or DeMocker’s two defense teams would give me an interview. This was because the case took more than five years from arrest to sentencing amid countless court filings, all kinds of ethical allegations, a seemingly endless investigation, and additional charges that were filed against DeMocker between the first and second trials. And there was even more drama leading up to the sentencing hearing, where he was given a life term plus 21 years. Everyone was worried about jeopardizing the conviction or appeal.

Hoping to win his appeal, DeMocker wouldn’t talk to me either and neither would his family or attorneys. So who was left for me to interview, you might ask? Well, in another rare development, the victim’s friends and family ended up being my best sources. This was a marked contrast to my book, LOST GIRLS, for example, where the victims’ families launched personal attacks at me in the media when the book came out. I had tried to win their cooperation, but they did not want to talk to me, so I wrote the book with the sources I had, using their own words, which were available in the public domain.

Having to write a book based so heavily on document research was like wrestling a bear to the ground. It took me more than a year of working full time to write this story, after examining countless photos and reading through, analyzing and cross-checking facts in thousands of pages of investigative reports and witness interviews and testimony. I also spent several more months incorporating late-breaking information.

This forced me to throw out any type of typical book-writing routine I normally follow (which as you can see is not all that typical anyway). But even with fewer of my own interviews with human beings, I was still able to glean just as much or more detail from my treasure trove of documents.

The result: With THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER, I ended up with a more complete and psychological story about the victim—and the evolution of her relationship with the man convicted of killing her, her ex-husband and “soulmate”—than ever before, and for me that was very rewarding. Through her friends and family, I enjoyed getting to know what a loving, gentle, talented and sensitive soul Carol Kennedy was, and I felt good that I was able to pay such a nice tribute to her memory. It was a bonus that two of her closest friends were also therapists, and had known both Carol and Steve for many, many years, so they were psychological experts for my purposes as well.

I hope you agree when you read the book, it all worked out well in the end, and I was able to include my signature level of exhaustive detail.

Caitlin’s Books

NAKED ADDICTION Tired of working undercover narcotics, police detective Ken Goode wants a transfer to homicide. After the Camus-reading surfer finds the body of a beautiful woman in an alley, he is assigned to head a team of relief detectives with the hopes of proving he is homicide-worthy. As Goode explores the underbelly of the affluent coastal enclave of La Jolla, California, and its hipster neighbor, Pacific Beach, he clashes with the patrons and employees of a neighborhood bar: real estate agents and beauty school students who have possible ties to an escort service and a drug ring – and keep turning up dead. The untimely disappearance of Goode’s sister proves a worrisome distraction as he chases suspects and a dogged cub reporter chases him. In this intricately-layered plot, Rother’s characters use substances or other people to try to fill the empty spaces within themselves, with addictions ranging from sex, alcohol, cocaine and cigarettes to Goode’s own, caffeine and damaged women.

I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU Femme fatale Nanette Packard had a knack for seducing, manipulating and victimizing a string of husbands and lovers, often simultaneously. A habitual liar, cheat and thief, this Supermom con artist was married three times, had four children and had spent millions by the time she and her lover, NFL linebacker Eric Naposki, went to trial for conspiring to murder Bill McLaughlin, her older entrepreneur fiance. Like and episode of "The Real Housewives of Orange County Gone Bad," this high-profile fatal love triangle case shows that the pressures to appear wealthy, cosmetically enhanced and mega-successful have only grown stronger.

LOST GIRLS The desperate search for two lost innocents from the San Diego area, teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, led authorities to a brutal predator hiding in plain sight: John Albert Gardner, a convicted sex offender who could have been returned to prison several times over. Rother delivers an incisive, heartbreaking story about case that galvanized its community, first by grief and goodwill, then by anger and injustice, as it came to grips with a flawed system that failed ... and adopted a law that will forever change how we keep our children safe.

POISONED LOVE Kristin Rossum had everything going for her -- beauty, brains, and the start of a brilliant toxicology career. But the 24-year-old San Diegan was torn between three relationships: one with her husband, who was found not breathing and covered with red rose petals; one with her married boss; and one with her old flame, crystal meth. This cautionary tale illustrates how an obsession for passion and easy access to narcotics can devastate not just one life, but many others in the process. In this updated edition, 16 pages of new developments about Rossum's appeals raise forensic questions about her conviction.

DEAD RECKONING This is the authoritative story behind the high-profile murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks by a clan of outlaws led by Skylar and Jennifer Deleon. Skylar, a charming conman and hermaphrodite wanna-be, told the Hawkses he made big money as a child actor in the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," when in fact he had only two small non-speaking roles. He tied the couple to the anchor of their yacht and threw them overboard -- alive -- near Newport Beach, but not before forcing them to sign power-of-attorney documents so he could steal their boat and pillage their bank accounts.

TWISTED TRIANGLE This is the crazy but entirely factual account of a kidnapping, an attempted murder and a love triangle involving two married FBI agents, Margo and Gene Bennett, and crime novelist Patricia Cornwell. This story made international headlines when it broke in 1996, but Rother is the first writer to tell Margo's exclusive story. Co-authored with former FBI agent John Hess.

BODY PARTS The true story behind the murders by serial killer and rapist Wayne Adam Ford, a long-haul trucker who was convicted of killing four women -- and dismembering two of them -- in four California counties. Sentenced in 2007, he is now sitting on death row in San Quentin state prison. Rother offers a comprehensive look at the case, which took eight years to get to trial, and reveal new and exclusive details about Ford and his family.

DEADLY DEVOTION TV reporter Alysia Sofios risked her entire career to help the surviving female members of the Marcus Wesson family recover from a cult-like life of polygamy, incest, abuse -- and the mass murder of their nine children. Together, they helped each other grow and bond into a new resilient family with a hopeful future. Originally titled WHERE HOPE BEGINS, this book was co-authored by Sofios and Rother.

MY LIFE, DELETED This is the NYT bestselling inspirational memoir of former NFL player Scott Bolzan, who lost all 46 years of his long-term memory to a severe head injury. With his college sweetheart Joan at his side, Scott had to rebuild his whole world, starting with the definition of "wife," in this story of hope, love and a medical mystery that gave him a rare opportunity to become a new man. Co-authored with Scott and his wife Joan.

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